Light over England
Film presentation | Film details
Cabines téléphoniques de Kingston
FILM PRESENTATION

Luc Giard's latest film is about England. After so many discoveries in South America, this may seem very surprising, but on closer inspection this decision is understandable. After all, England is but a stone's throw from his native town of Boulogne in France. He visits England regularly and since adolescence has been crossing the Channel to keep up with the latest changes. In the 1960s Luc was fascinated by London with its fashion, arts, music clubs and, of course, its young ladies!

Life passes and Luc's visits to this fascinating country cease, until 1992 when he decides to return to realise a dream, to enjoy and benefit from the extraordinary lights of the northern skies. In the past these skies have already inspired many Flemish and English painters. Over a period of four years Luc is to visit this island nearly forty times and to bring back a book of photographs and an entire film about England, a very enriching and unexpected discovery.

Stonehenge

This was not a particularly easy task; exoticism, obvious in Latin America, takes on another appearance here. Even so, the moment one sets foot on this island, everything is different: driving on the left, the telephone kiosks, the policemen, the distances, the food, the roads, the countryside, etc. After these first impressions, we are disconcerted from day to day by 'Englishness'. Here, the superficially-felt sensuality of Brazil finds itself thwarted by the coolness of the climate and the centuries of puritanism. Here, the easy-going encounters of Mexico prove to be the result of a long tradition of taming through etiquette, of subtle limits which need to be well understood.

Each place, each house, and before long every square inch, is venerated for the visit of a King, a writer or an inventor. Characteristic of the Englishman is his devoted respect of his roots, his ancestors and the past. To discover this people, comparable to no other, it was necessary to dig deeply into history, customs, economy, literature and arts. This long research culminated in a film which transports you in time and space, giving you the desire to discover for yourself this island where past and present intermingle inexorably.

concert du château de Leeds
Concert in Leeds castle









westminster
London

 


FILM DETAILS

Part 1:
Circles of stones : Exmoor, Stonehenge, giants on the cliffs.
Château de Bodiam, East Sussex
Bodiam castle
Roman Invasion : Bath, Hadrian's wall.
Saxon, jute and angle Invasion : Lake district, New forest, Tintagel, Glastonbury.
Viking Invasion : Ramehead, Robin Hood's Bay.
Norman Invasion : Saint Valéry, Pevensey, Dover.
Churches : Glastonbury Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, Wells, Lincoln, Canterbury.
Parliament : Westminster, Big ben, Thames.
Civil War : Battle of Landsdawn, castles of Raglan, Caerphilly, Corfe, Bodiam.
Tudor: Little Moreton, Chester, Straford upon Avon. Royal Tunbridge Wells, Oxford, Cambridge.
English gardens : Stourhead, Scotney castle, Leonardslee, Great Malvern.
Cinq ports: Dickens at Broadstairs, Rye, , barge racing, Cutty sark, Staithes, paddle boats.
Royalty : Upping swan, Henley Royal Regattas and classic boat.
London : Thames, City, Campden Lock, Speaker's Corner, Richmond Park, Trafalgar square, Piccadilly,Trooping the Colour.

 

Part 2
Country and Agriculture : Culture in the Marsh, Cotswold's countryside,
Harvest in Kent, daily life of a family and a village.
La Morgan
Morgans' rally

Concours de grimace à Egremont
Egremont Gurning World Cup
Natural Parks of the North : Lake District, North York Moors, sheep dog trial, Agricultural fair, Egremont Gurning World Cup.
Industrial Age : Liverpool, Welsh mines, power station and phosphate
Mines, Iron Bridge, the oldest metal bridge (1779),
Jodrell Bank radio-telescope.
Vintage Cars : Rod Jolley's workshop, spare parts market at
Beaulieu Castle,. La Morgan : Great Malvern
Workshop, meeting of 800 Morgans in the New Forest.
Horses : New Forest pony sale, hop picking, Shire horse
harnessing contest at Whitbread Farm, Young's beer
delivery on horseback (horse-drawn) in London.
Celebrations : Christmas, balloon launching and concert at Leeds Castle.
Attractions: The smallest steam train in the world at New Romney,
steam engines at Sellindge, Sunday in Blackpool.
Preserved Towns : York and Bath.
Sports and walks : Football, Bowls, Golf, Folkstone, walks along the coast
hang-gliding, flight over Kent.


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